Thursday, February 16, 2006

A LibDem mystery

Apparently the ballot paper for the LibDem Leadership lists the candidates names (as would, I suppose, any ballot paper) with one curious exception.

There is a surprise last minute candidature from CAMPBELL, Menzies.

Is he by some chance related to "elderly toff" (Labour MPs words, not mine) Sir Ming Campbell? Or is Sir Ming embarrassed by his knighthood fearing it might put off a large section of the left-wing of his own party?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Or maybe he thinks that whether or not he is a knight has no bearing on his ability to be leader?

Antony said...

According to today's papers, apparently the Labour frontbench heard the MP Ian Davidson say "elderly poof" rather than "toff" and that is what caused the laughter.

As for your point, anonymous, I don't agree. When you get knighted your legal identity changes. You have to change your bank accounts, house deeds, wills and the lot. Antony Little ceases to exist, there is only Sir Antony Little. So, given that "CAMPBELL, Menzies" doesn't legally exist, only "CAMPBELL, Sir Menzies" why hide it? It is his name, after all. They were fussy enough to make him use Menzies instead of Ming, so why not make him use his proper name? All smells a bit fishy to me ... like Chris Huhne and some Euro money!

Anonymous said...

He won. I think I need to bury my head in a bucket of sand. I'll never make PM at this rate.